Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston has had a lot of honors presented to him.
For instance, he’s been recognized for starting the Martin Luther King Parade in Greensboro, for running several successful businesses including everything from a hot dog stand to a real estate firm, for co-founding the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in downtown Greensboro, and for being the first black chairman of the Board of Commissioners and also being the person who’s held that job more times than any other person in recent Guilford County history – and, likely, in all of Guilford County history.
So, Alston has received a lot of recognition over the years.
However, at the Board of Commissioners Thursday, Aug. 15 meeting, a county department director announced that a local organization of prominent area black business leaders had come to Alston and asked to establish a new yearly golf tournament in his name – The Annual Melvin ‘Skip’ Alston Golf Classic.
Alston eventually agreed but only if all the proceeds went to help the homeless – so the new official name of the tournament ended up as the Annual Melvin ‘Skip’ Alston Golf Classic To Benefit The Homeless.
This year, the tournament will be held on Monday, Oct. 21 at a course at Grandover Resort.
Alston said he wasn’t sure he was hearing right when he first got asked.
“I was totally flattered,” he said.
The chairman said the group of business leaders really selected him because he had for decades been a proprietor of several successful businesses as well as an avid golfer.
He explained why he would only allow his name to be used for the tournament if the proceeds went to help the homeless.
“That has been what I have been focused on – ending homelessness in the county – so that’s how I wanted the money to be used,” he said.
Both Guilford County government and the governments of Greensboro and High Point have been conducting a fierce battle against homelessness in Guilford County in recent years.
Alston said the goal is to have 100 golfers participate this year and raise at least $100,000 for the cause.
He said he hopes the Melvin ‘Skip’ Alston Golf Classic To Benefit The Homeless grows larger in coming years and raises more and more money.
According to Alston, one company that’s helping assure the tournament’s success is Koury Corp., which is sponsoring the event and providing the course and the staff, so there will be low to no cost overhead and all the money raised can go toward helping the homeless.
He also said that, since it will be at a course Grandover’ West– a lot of people will get a chance to play a wonderful course that might otherwise have been too pricey.
Alston is an avid golfer and a good one at that.
His score is consistently in the 80s. In 2023, Alston and Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers played in the 5th Annual First Responders of the Triad Golf Tournament on a team that included Marc Isaacson, a partner with the Isaacson Sheridan Law Firm, and Nathaniel Hargett III, the president and owner of Hargett Funeral Service, Inc.
That effort resulted in $25,000 in prize money that went to help feed the hungry in Guilford County and to buy Christmas presents for kids who otherwise might not get any.
That tournament used a modified Captain’s Choice format with the four players all playing off of the best drive on each hole; and at the time, Alston said of Hargett: “He played for NC State and he can really play. He was the A-golfer. All we had to do was chip and putt.”
In August of 2021, Alston came within two inches of winning $25,000 on a hole-in-one shot while playing in a golf tournament held for county commissioners at the annual state convention of commissioners and other county officials. (The prize money wasn’t taxpayer money, but instead was put up by a local sponsor of the convention.)
Each August, county commissioners from around North Carolina attend the annual conference – which, that year, was held in Wilmington.
“I came within two inches from winning a $25,000 hole-in-one prize from a 175-yard par 3 hole yesterday at the North Carolina County Commissioners Golf Tournament in Wilmington,” Alston told the Rhino Times at that time.
That happened at the Beau Rivage Golf Course in Wilmington as part of the fun activities at the conference where the commissioners and other county officials also reportedly do some serious work.
Alston said he felt relaxed as he teed off at the all-important par 3 which paid out all the money.
Because of a hill, at first, Alston couldn’t see how close his shot was to the hole, and another player in his group, who was walking ahead of the cart Alston was driving, saw it.
The other player exclaimed “Damn!”
Then Alston saw his ball – just 2 inches away from the hole and the giant payout.
“I saw it and I said ‘Man, man, man!” the disappointed Alston said.
Who gives a …
I think he should give up his day job and concentrate full-time on his golf tournament.
He has a day job?
Seriously???
Isn’t it wonderful? It couldn’t possible be the Greensboro Men’s Club could it?
Well congratulations Skippy, how fitting for such a see you in tee. Pun intended. May you forever hack sand and lose all your balls. It’s high time Guilford County & the City of Greensboro stop letting the nuts run the asylum & send you all home to be replaced by some true leadership.
Now comes the donation gauging and shakedowns. Get ready city of Greensboro and Guilford County and businesses around NC. Alston and the local Black leaders will shake you down for donations so they can brag about the money raised for the homeless. If you don’t donate, you are a racist. See how this works?
Wow! This really tips the faith in humanity scale in the wrong direction. No doubt in my mind this is the asinine brainchild of The Greensboro Mens Club.
[Editor’s Note: The event is part of MED Week, which is meant to celebrate the successes of minority and women owned businesses in the area and is organized by the Greensboro MED Week Committee, which includes representatives from the City, Guilford County, NC A&T State University, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Guilford County Schools.]
If not, it was orchestrated by one or more members. For those of you unfamiliar, please take a few moments to look them up. I can summarize it fairly easily: A group of elite black gentlemen (mostly politicians, doctors lawyers, accountants, etc.) who publicly decry how the “1%” is keeping junior down while lobying for grants and contracts that make and keep themselves in that 1%. These men literally eat their own for profit by building and maintaining the very programs and systems that keep their neighbors down. From all appearances one must be wealthy, prominent, racist, and most of all black to be a member.
If you are correct that from all appearances one must be wealthy, prominent, racist, and most of all Black to be a member of the Greensboro Men’s Club, why do we have DEI? I’ll bet the members of the GMC are shakedown artists, just like Alston.